Senate Bill 993 and House Bill 1886: these bills will create a scholarship tax credit for special needs children all across Missouri, many of whose families don’t have the financial means to place their child in a school that truly meets that child’s needs. And individual or group who donates to this scholarship can claim up to 80% of their donation as a tax credit. There are quite a few tax credits proposed—one offers a tax credit for installing idle reduction technology on a class 8 truck, another offers a tax credit for building a storm shelter. One covers sales tax on cars built in Missouri, and another is for, um, “odor abatement” activities near livestock! Regardless of each bill’s merit, tax credits are to encourage people to do something necessary for the wellbeing of the state when the burden of cost is on the individual. I think that educating our special needs children well takes the cake for good causes. Parents of special needs children can use their scholarship toward a public or private school and make a decision about which school in Missouri serves their child’s disability best. They can make that choice independently of every other concern, like where they can reasonably afford to live, or the different needs of another child, or the cost of specialists in private schools.
All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talent.
-- John F. Kennedy
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